100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

πŸŽ‰ Meet Toy Hero - our brand-new toy store, built by the team behind Book Hero

Badvertising

Polluting Our Minds and Fuelling Climate Chaos
3.35 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 48 ratings, 8 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Badvertising exposes the dark side of the advertising industry, revealing how it manipulates our desires and behaviours by selling empty dreams and lifestyles. Authors Andrew Simms and Leo Murray explore the profound psychological effects of constant commercial bombardment and how it undermines our communities and wellbeing. The book also highlights how powerful industries such as airlines, car manufacturers, and oil companies influence policies to block climate action, pushing the planet towards environmental catastrophe. More than a critique, it offers vital insights into how society can resist and reform the pervasive influence of advertising.
Read More
Format: Hardback
$4799
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This provocative and accessible book is ideal for readers interested in politics, environmental issues, consumer culture, and the societal impacts of advertising. It will appeal to those concerned about sustainability and mental wellbeing, as well as activists and policymakers seeking a deeper understanding of commercial influence on climate and behaviour.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Uncovers the devastating psychological, social and environmental costs of advertising

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

An Independent Book of the Month

'Funny and readable, [it] will make us all see the world in a very different way' - Dr Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People

'Brilliant ... if you thought your brain was being gently warmed by the advertising industry, read this book and you'll realise it's being fried' - Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio 2

Advertising is selling us a dream, a lifestyle. It promises us fulfilment and tells us where to buy it - from international flights to a vast array of goods we consume like there is no tomorrow. The truth is, if advertising succeeds in keeping us on our current trajectory, there may not be a tomorrow.

In Badvertising, Andrew Simms and Leo Murray raise the alarm about an industry that is making us both unhealthy and unhappy, and that is driving the planet to the precipice of environmental collapse in the process.

What is the psychological impact of being barraged by thousands of prompts to buy things every day? How does the commercialisation of our public spaces weaken our sense of belonging? How are car manufacturers, airlines and oil companies lobbying to weaken climate action? Examining the devastating impact of advertising on our minds and the planet, Badvertising also crucially explores what we can do to change things for the better.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780745349145

Publisher: Pluto Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 20 November 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Pluto Press

Illustration: 11 Halftones, black and white

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 272

About the Author

Andrew Simms is the author of many books including The New Economics, Ecological Debt, Tescopoly and Cancel the Apocalypse andΒ Economics: A Crash Course.Β He co-founded the New Weather Institute and coordinates the Rapid Transition Alliance. He is a research associate at the Centre for Global Political Economy, University of Sussex, a fellow of the New Economics Foundation (NEF), and is a frequent contributor to the Guardian and BBC. He co-founded the Green New Deal group in 2007, the climate campaign onehundredmonths.org that ran until 2017, and devised Earth Overshoot Day. Leo Murray co-founded Plane Stupid, where he played a central role in strategic planning and communication for three years from 2006. He also designed and co-founded the climate change campaigning organisation Possible in 2009, where he is currently director of innovation. Murray is the brains behind the Frequent Flyer Levy, and strategy lead for the Rapid Transition Taskforce. He was previously a part-time political advisor on the transition to a sustainable economy to Labour's Shadow Minister for Sustainable Economics, Clive Lewis MP.

Also by Andrew Simms

View all
  • Badvertising
    An Independent Book of the Month 'Funny and readable, [it] will make us all see the world in a very different way' - Dr Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People 'Brilliant ... if you thought your brain was being gently warmed by the advertising industry, read this book and you'll realise it's being fried' - Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks

Also by Leo Murray

View all
  • Badvertising
    An Independent Book of the Month 'Funny and readable, [it] will make us all see the world in a very different way' - Dr Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People 'Brilliant ... if you thought your brain was being gently warmed by the advertising industry, read this book and you'll realise it's being fried' - Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks

More from Politics & Current Affairs

View all
  • One Last Question, Prime Minister
    From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament Barry Soper has spent close to five decades questioning New Zealand's prime ministers.From the imposing, larger-than-life characters of Rob Muldoon and David Lange, to the golden age of Helen Clark and John Key, and the post-Covid era of Jacinda Ardern and the 'Chrises', Soper's insight and nose for a...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Regime Change
    From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House and the first year of his second presidency. Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administration’s most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader into...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $4299
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    A Different Kind of Power
    #1 New Zealand bestseller #1 Amazon bestseller #2 Audible bestseller #3 New York Times bestseller #3 Sunday Times bestseller #4 Australian bestseller From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Different Kind of Power
    Ockham Winner
    A Different Kind of Power
    What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she commanded global respect for her empathetic leadership that put people first. This is the remarkable story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt made...
    Hardback
    $4799
    Elsewhere:
    $5999
    (7)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Signed Copy
    Go Hard or Go Home
    From the front bench to rock bottom:Β Go Hard or Go HomeΒ is Kiri Allan's fearless memoir of ambition, disruption and survival in NZ politics and beyond. Kiri Allan's six-year political career spanned some of the most challenging times in recent history. Events a government might encounter once in a generation stacked up: a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, destructive and deadly...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    Pre-order
    Out 4 Aug 2026
  • New Release
    Suicidal Empathy
    The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World
    From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen explores how Republicans have abused power, how Democrats have refused to exercise power when they held it, and how progressives should wield power if they are fortunate enough to win a free and fair election in a post-Trump world. The Day After: How to Wield Power in...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Careless People
    Shocking and darkly funny, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to the decisions that are shaping our world and the people who make them. Welcome to Facebook. Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook's potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there...
    Paperback
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Discipline
    Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...
    Paperback
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Shattered Lands
    'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' – PETER FRANKOPAN 'This book is a revelation … both original and important' – MISHAL HUSAIN A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and...
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Handmaid's Tale
    The bestselling dystopian classic that became a cultural phenomenon and inspired an award-winning TV series. THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series. 'As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it.' Guardian I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no...
    Paperback
    $2000
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
    'A howl from the heart of our age' β€” Richard Flanagan 'A unique and urgently needed book.' β€” Naomi Klein 'A powerful, uncomfortable but thought-provoking read.' β€” Dua Lipa 'Clear, elegant and devastatingly truthful... Read this shatteringly honest book.' β€” Max Porter From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad, an urgent and necessary reckoning with what it means to...
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.